Exploring Australia's SW corner

It has been a bit of a battle accessing WIFI while on the road. Where possible we choose campsites in the styx! Waking up to birdcalls, wildflowers and wildlife has been our trade off to the availability of cyberspace. Sid's camping spot was one of our faves!! Really casual but spotlessly clean and even our own en suite!!

After leaving Freo we headed down the coast to Bunbury and Busselton, both pretty uncomplicated yet marking their own existences with artistic or cultural attractions. We weren't at all impressed with the drop in temperature around this area. We layered up with every item from our nomadic wardrobe to walk the outlandishly long jetty (1.8km) at Busselton.

We are never known to travel in straight lines. A diversion to Wellington National Park was made, but we were ambushed while on one of the hiking trails!!!

And so on to Cape Naturaliste where we did a stint of whale-spotting and braved the elements to walk a couple of the trails.

A few diversions on the way to the cape gave us a taste of WA's beautiful white Sandy beaches. Such a paradise for surfers, in fact there were fleets of 'tradie' vans in various car parks, which must account for many delays on the job!!!

On to the big magnet of the SW.......Margaret River. Let the wine tasting begin!! Before any of that happened we had to drop into a cheese factory, chocolate company, nougat manufacturer, cookie kitchen, olive oil plantation, venison deli, coffee roaster,......... a foodies dream. Although highly commercialised, Margaret River held huge attractions for us,.....including their very friendly farmer's market.

Margaret River's signature wines are Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Mmmm.....just to confirm NZ makes more stunning white wines, but the jury is still on reds. This Chocoletti fortified wine was a winner for us,...... possibly because we needed warming up from the inside!!

Around the bottom corner of WA and heading East we are now amongst all places ending in -up (Nannup, Balingup, Boyup, Manjimup, Quinnup). Now we are in the true fruit-growing area which makes our avocado and apple orchards look tiny. Avocados we know. Truffle-harvesting we don't!! We stopped off to learn all about it, but could only see the ground where the truffles are grown. The truffle dogs finished their job in August and are now on a nine-month holiday!!! But, the same land also produced a wonderful rose.

Next time we write we will tell you about the tingle trees and show the more idiotic one of us climbing a 60m jarra.

Perth and beyond

It was not too difficult to leave the cooler damp climate of home to the dry warmth of Perth. It was even less difficult to fall in love with this city that sits under a near-perfect canopy of blue sky.  It's people seemed to be unrushed which became the ideal setting for us. Best of all we were introduced to our first splash of West Australian wildflowers.

For a city of 2 million people we were wondering where they all were? The CBD was free from congestion and we found it refreshingly uncomplicated. It was a treat to see the major sighted without being jostled by thousands of other tourists.

As usual we did most of our exploring on foot and were forever drawn to the Swan Riverbank.

Rottnest Island was top of our must-do list. We chose yet another stunning day and decided to explore this car-free off-the-grid paradise by bike.

We circumnavigated the island and around each winding corner was yet another beautiful bay....

After 20+km of undulated country on a hire bike that was not well sprung or geared we ended the day a little sun-tanned and weary, just like this little quokka who was doing his best to hide from anyone trying to catch a selfie with him.

We could have spent much longer in Perth, but it was time to hit the road and collect the vehicle we are calling home for the next six weeks.

And so on to Freemantle, or 'Freo' to use the local term. What a delightful town based on Edwardian and Victorian architecture.

Best of all it it is alive with buskers, craft beer bars, seafood restaurants and colourful markets. Spent long hours in this gallery that produced fabulous bronze sculptures.

No trip to Freo is complete without exploring the prison and reliving footage of the 1988 riots that wedged the old establishment into the town's history books.

Tomorrow,.....more hours wandering around Freemantle. This laid back lifestyle is becoming addictive!!!